Sports sponsorship in India was ₹7,943 crore in 2025. The bigger numbers are something else.
WPP Media puts India's sports sponsorship at ₹7,943 crore in 2025, up 7%, inside a ₹18,864 crore sports economy. FICCI-EY prints the same data gross of taxes, ₹22,300 crore. What each figure measures, and which ones not to quote.
By Saurabh Garg, founder of C4E · Published 7 Nov 2026 · How we check
Sports sponsorship in India was worth ₹7,943 crore in 2025, up 7%, according to WPP Media's Sporting Nation report published in March 2026. That is the number for sponsorship. The bigger figure quoted with it, ₹18,864 crore, is the whole sports economy: sponsorship plus advertising in sport plus athlete endorsements. FICCI-EY's media and entertainment report, out the same week, prints the same WPP data gross of taxes, which is why its sports figure reads ₹22,300 crore.
How big is sponsorship in India in 2025?
Every figure below is for calendar 2025. The first four come from WPP Media, the next two from FICCI-EY, and the table says which.
| What it measures | 2025 | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sports sponsorshipUp 7%, 42% of the sports total | ₹7,943 crore | Up 7%, 42% of the sports total | WPP Media |
| Sports media spend (ads in sport on TV and digital)Up 19.8%, 51% of the total | ₹9,571 crore | Up 19.8%, 51% of the total | WPP Media |
| Athlete endorsementsUp 10.3%; cricketers took 87% | ₹1,350 crore | Up 10.3%; cricketers took 87% | WPP Media |
| Whole sports economy (the three above)Up 13.4% from ₹16,633 crore | ₹18,864 crore | Up 13.4% from ₹16,633 crore | WPP Media |
| Sports sponsorship, gross of taxesSame WPP data, as FICCI-EY prints it | ₹9,400 crore | Same WPP data, as FICCI-EY prints it | FICCI-EY |
| Organised live eventsUp 44%, the Kumbh Mela added ₹2,500 crore | ₹14,500 crore | Up 44%, the Kumbh Mela added ₹2,500 crore | FICCI-EY |
| All media and entertainmentUp 9% | ₹2.78 lakh crore | Up 9% | FICCI-EY |
Why do WPP and FICCI-EY give different numbers?
They are the same numbers on two bases. FICCI-EY credits its sports chapter to WPP Media and states that all its figures are gross of taxes. WPP's ₹18,864 crore becomes ₹22,300 crore in the EY report, and ₹7,943 crore of sponsorship becomes ₹9,400 crore. Both pairs differ by a factor of 1.18, which is 18% GST. Adding them together, or citing them as two estimates that agree, counts the same money twice.
The live events figure measures something else. FICCI-EY's ₹14,500 crore is the revenue of organised event and activation companies, ticketed concerts and the Kumbh Mela included. Brand sponsorship of events is inside it, along with tickets and production fees, and the report does not split it out. Nobody publishes a single number for sponsorship across sport, events, television and creators in India.
How much of it is cricket?
Cricket took 81% of sports sponsorship and 89% of the whole sports economy in 2025, up from 85% in 2024, WPP says. FICCI-EY's split of the same data puts cricket sponsorship up 15% and every other sport down 17%, a fall it puts down to the year after the Paris Olympics. Inside sponsorship, ground sponsorship rose 9.5%, to ₹3,930 crore gross of taxes, and franchise fees came to ₹3,340 crore.
Which figures should not be quoted?
“Sports sponsorship in India crossed $2 billion” appears in the FICCI-EY report only as a quote from an industry executive in its live events chapter. WPP's $2 billion figure, $2,134 million, is the whole sports economy; sponsorship alone is under $1 billion. Figures for IPL team sponsorship that circulate as “according to WPP” do not appear on WPP's own release, and the full report was not reachable when we checked.
How many sponsorship deals are signed in India each year?
Neither report counts deals. Monumentum's record does, one deal per brand per property per season, with the source for each: see the reports, the rankings of the brands on the most properties, and the most active sponsors of 2026. Our record covers deals that were announced or reported, so it is a floor, not a census.
The fastest money in sport in 2025 was the screen, not the logo: advertising in sport grew 19.8%, sponsorship 7%. A brand that wants the cricket audience is buying more of it in ad breaks than on boundary boards.
How we checked: WPP Media's release of 30 March 2026, and the FICCI-EY report “Stories, scale and impact” (March 2026), both opened in full on 7 November 2026. Crore figures from EY's billions are our conversion. See how we check.